SPORTS HEADLINES

They became the first team at Northwest to win eight games in a season after shutting down Keller Central, 19-0.

GANG TACKLE – Northwest’s Carter James and Duke Kicinski swarm to make the tackle against Keller Central Friday. Messenger photo by Jimmy Alford

The Texans (8-2, 6-1) celebrated the win on senior night, but quarterback Draze Lawliss is already looking ahead to the postseason.

“This is a huge confidence boost for us, and we need to just keep working hard in practice,” Lawliss said. “We’ve got a really pumped up team right now. We just have to really focus in practice because we have a short week since we play on Thursday.”

Northwest will play Arlington Lamar Thursday at 9 p.m. at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington for the bi-district championship.

Going in to the game against Central (6-4, 4-3), Northwest looked to shut down Central quarterback Jake McClurg. They did it with great success. The quarterback threw the ball 10 times and ran for 85 yards but was unable to get Central on the board.

The Texans had early success, scoring on the first drive of the game with a four-yard run by Dakota Chavis but were unable to make the extra point.

Dylan Stubbe later added another score with a three-yard run to extend the Texan lead to 13-0.

Cayden Ihrig connected on a 40-yard field goal in the second quarter, and the Texans effectively stopped the Chargers with an interception by Sam Jennings with a minute remaining in the first half.

The Texans were able to stop any momentum the Chargers had and continued with their own.

Another field goal by Ihrig, this time from 35 yards, put another three points on the board for the Texans.

Neither team scored again.

“We played good on defense and offensively, we just did the things we had to do,” said head coach Bill Patterson. “Our kids got after them and I’m proud of the way they played and I’m proud of them. They’re good kids, and they do a lot of good things.”

Looking to the game next week, Patterson repeated the sentiments from his quarterback.

“We just got to get ready quickly,” Patterson said.

Patterson says the community support made a difference this year.

“We have great people, great fans, great school, great administrators and that makes a big difference,” Patterson said.